MAN IN THE NEWS: MARCO VINICIO CEREZO AREVALO; NOT A FRIEND OF GENERALS

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Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, who emerged today as the overwhelming civilian winner of Guatemala's presidential election, carries the hopes of his countrymen as no leader has in more than three decades.

Mr. Cerezo is an independent-minded liberal in a country long dominated by rightist military officers. In an environment of ruthless terror, he has not only survived, but has built the most effective nationwide political organization the country has seen in years.

At least three attempts have been made to kill Mr. Cerezo, all during the Government of Gen. Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia under whose rule death squads killed thousands.

In one attack, in January 1980, Mr. Cerezo - the name is pronounced seh-RAY-soh - and his bodyguards fought a 10-minute gun battle with snipers who opened fire as he stepped from his party office. Two people were killed and Mr. Cerezo later counted 37 bullet holes in the armored jeep behind which he took cover.

Another assassination attempt came when policemen stormed a hotel where Mr. Cerezo was staying in downtown Guatemala City. The third was a bazooka assault against his father's home, where he was temporarily living.

After the first attempt on his life, Mr. Cerezo sent his wife and four children out of the country. They have lived on the outskirts of Washington since 1980.

Political terror during the Lucas Government took the lives of the country's two leading civilian politicians, former Foreign Minister Alberto Fuentes Mohr and Manuel Colom Argueta, a former Mayor of the capital, and many Guatemalans believe that if either had lived Mr. Cerezo might not have reached the presidency.

''That is partly true, since those men were older and more widely known than I was,'' Mr. Cerezo said recently. ''But bear in mind that if Guatemala was a normal country, both of them would have been elected and would have served out their terms by now, and I would probably be running this year in any case.''

Not Bound by Party

Although he has been a leading activist in the Christian Democratic Party since his student days, Mr. Cerezo acknowledges that he is not bound by party orthodoxy. Diplomats and others here place him in the party's left wing.

Mr. Cerezo was born in the capital on Dec. 26, 1942. His father, Marco Vinicio Cerezo Sierra, was a lawyer who became a member of the Supreme Court. An uncle, Celso Cerezo, was the youngest member of Guatemala's first freely elected Congress in the 1940's, winning election at the age of 21. A grandfather was a political activist who was poisoned at the age of 36, apparently for opposing the dictator Jorge Ubico.

Guatemala lived through 10 years of democracy between 1944 and 1954 until a coup planned by American officials re-established military rule. At the time, the United States feared the leftward drift of the elected Guatemalan Government.

Coup 'a Crucial Moment'

Mr. Cerezo said in an interview that the coup, which took place when he was not yet 12 years old, was ''a crucial moment in my life.''

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''I remember sitting in a tree watching the rebel planes fly over,'' he said. ''I thought to myself that this was going to mean very bad times for our family and for Guatemala. That was when I decided it was the right thing to dedicate myself to the cause of democracy.''

Mr. Cerezo began his rise to prominence while he was in law school here. At one protest demonstration he attended, a fellow student, Raquel Blandon, burned a copy of a controversial electoral law. As police moved in, Mr. Cerezo helped rescue her. They became friends and were married in 1965.

According to Mr. Cerezo's associates, his wife is a brilliant thinker, eclipsing Mr. Cerezo himself. Enemies say she is a leftist who strongly influences her husband. Her job as First Lady, Mr. Cerezo said, will be ''to argue for the needs of the poor and dispossessed, and to make sure I never forget who elected me.''

The couple have four children, all of whom have been studying abroad. The eldest, Marco Vinicio, who returned to help his father's campaign this year, is attending the Sorbonne. Two other sons, Carlos Rafael and Alexis Mauricio, attend Roman Catholic high schools in Washington. A daughter, Quetzali, studies at an international school there.

Mr. Cerezo served in Congress from 1974 to 1978 and was a candidate for Mayor of the capital in 1978. He was defeated amid charges of electoral fraud. He ran again for Congress in 1982 and won, but a military coup prevented the Congress elected that year from taking office.

A Black Belt in Karate

Since his student days, Mr. Cerezo has been an athlete, but he has been forced to drop soccer and other team sports in favor of individual recreation. He holds a black belt in karate.

The novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the social critic Alvin Toffler are among Mr. Cerezo's preferred authors, but he cites Clausewitz as his favorite. ''Clausewitz was a perfect strategist, and his work is my manual of operations,'' he said.

When one of Mr. Cerezo's friends asked him recently what he would do on his first day in office, he replied with a broad smile, ''Celebrate!''

But he remains acutely aware of the dangers he faces as a civilian trying to alter the course of his country's history while archconservative businessmen, large landowners and military officers strive to maintain the status quo. He has carried a pistol for years, and says he will wear it throughout his presidency.

''The only way they are going to get me out of the palace is to carry me out dead,'' he said.

A version of this article appears in print on December 10, 1985, on Page A00003 of the National edition with the headline: MAN IN THE NEWS: MARCO VINICIO CEREZO AREVALO; NOT A FRIEND OF GENERALS. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe